NC DOT denies city/county request to name bridge for Bowen

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Smoky Park Bridge should not be renamed for Capt. Jeff Bowen, a city firefighter who died in a fire last July, a committee of the state Board of Transportation decided.

The committee followed a policy that says state-owned bridges and roads are not named for firefighters or other emergency responders who died on the job, said Ted Vaden, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.